David Pinsley is vice president/senior designer/sales executive for First Rate Renovations, Inc. and Cultured Marble Products in San Leandro, California, serving the Bay Area. With more than 40 years’ experience in the industry, he has seen a lot of trends come and go. Here, he discusses what people today are looking for when it comes to the most fashionable and trendiest bathroom design.
When people ask me about the latest trends in bathroom design, I ask them what their budget is and what exactly they are trying to design. For me, bathroom trends go hand in hand with your budget.
The idea behind designing any kind of a bathroom is that it should fit your specific needs. If you have a $50,000 budget, we can put in anything you want. If you have a $5,000 budget, you will replace a couple of things with a couple of other things, and basically keep it similar to what you have.
Big Trend, Big Budget
Top trends only relate to people with huge budgets. I just did five or six remodeling jobs for the same family. This guy never asks me for a price or what kind of budget, he just asks me for a bill when he is done. He has a huge budget so money is not a consideration for him whatsoever.
I help him put together some products with his unlimited budget, and he chooses out whatever he wants. We go to different bathroom design places and we have beautiful things to select from. There are lots of design centers in the San Franciso Bay area, so the sky is the limit.
Bigger the Better
I would say the biggest trend today in bathroom design is space. People want a lot of storage space; they want a luxurious place to lounge around; they want someplace to sit. The bathroom has to be a relaxing atmosphere where all these needs can be met.
Often we have clients who tell us, “Hey, I just went to this hotel, where we stayed in a luxurious suite. This is exactly what we had, and we would love to recreate that in our house. What would that cost?”
I would say the most popular trends today are:
- Whirlpool baths
- Steam showers
- Multiple shower heads
- Heated tile floors
- Lots of mirrors
- Lounging areas
- Lots of room
- Place to sit down
- Storage space
It goes without saying that people want their home bathroom to feel like a spa. They want it to have a relaxing atmosphere that is similar to the one they experienced in a luxury hotel or at a spa resort. They want to recreate the feeling they had in a fancy, upscale suite, with all the latest in high-tech design. Of course, the masseuse is extra.
You have some excellent ideas for bathrooms. That has been one of the recurring themes in my own life-looking for a way to make our bathrooms and our kitchen look really glorious, even though those rooms are much too small. One of the glories of the Internet, though, is that there is absolutely no dearth of ideas. Right now I have no idea of what I will ultimately do, but I keep hoping I will come up with something really slick.
Joseph – December 17, 2009 , 2:10 PM
You have some excellent ideas for bathrooms. That has been one of the recurring themes in my own life-looking for a way to make our bathrooms and our kitchen look really glorious, even though those rooms are much too small. One of the glories of the Internet, though, is that there is absolutely no dearth of ideas. Right now I have no idea of what I will ultimately do, but I keep hoping I will come up with something really slick.
Joseph – December 17, 2009 , 7:10 PM